Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-04-18
WASHINGTON LETTER


not as great as in some former years.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MONITOR
Washington. Aprit IIh.
The work of evangelizing the city
of Washington has commenced, and
from the outlook will be vigorously
prosecuted. The pastors of eighteen
| protestant churches have discussed
the subject fraternally, and have
agreed upon a means of systematic
union work IN every section of the
Capital, which certain moralists have
essssed to establish as the most I'M
godly in the world.
And Washington is being made bet
ter in other ways. An old law on
the District of Columbia statute books
makes it unlawful for any person to
keep open any place of business for
the sale of any article of profit on
Sunday, excepting apothecaries, I'M
| l.
sioners have resurrected this law from
its dusty tomb, and propose to en-
force it. In other words there will
| be no cigar stores open next Sunday,
and news stands, ice-cream saloons,
| lunch rooms, ETC., will also be closed
1t is difficult to see the drift of this
action. Some people think that, since
the day Of blue law is over, the pro-
hibitionists have gone little too far
| for their own good, that there will be
a general howl of Indignation, a test
case in which the District will proba-
| bly, be defeated and then the barrier
will be down.
l do not know that Washington
needs any more evangelizing labor
expended upon it than any other me-
tropolis in the country, despite the
universal opinion outside that it is
perfect cesspool of iniquity. The
Capital is not vicious city. 1t is
really not in as bad way by half as
the agitators would make it out to
| be.
There are no gambling houses
! here. At one time faro and all other
games of chance which ruined the
life and business advancement of
many man in full blast, but they
were completely wiped out some years
ago, During the past winter some
adventures opened a gambling house
here for business, but within two
days their establishment was vacated
Thore are no professional poker rooms
| in existence here [ do not mean
that poker is not played, for it is, to
a considerable extent during the So
called social season, but it is not IL
| censed.
1t has been said in other cities that
| there was no artistic or musical at
mosphere in Washington that poll
tics and society absorbed every fac
ultv and interest. Washington does
lunch and dine and visit a great deal,
and ''politics'' do hang as a sort of
| Old man of the Sea about its neck.
but it is more than the political and
social capital of the greatest republic
| the world has ever seen. Every ma
tional interest centers here, and every
phase of national life is represented |
here, as is also the intellect, and Gull |
ture and patriotism of continent.
The great social whirl begins on
New Years Day and subsidies with |
the advent of Lent. During the sea-
son, with the fashionable people and |
official entertainers, calls and visit
ing cards fill up the mornings. Calls,
receptions and visiting cards crowd |
| the afternoons. Calls, receptions |
and visiting cards jam the evenings |
and nights until next morning every
| day.
If every day were week long and
every week month long there would |
still not be time enough for all the
calls, receptions, visiting cards,
breakfasts, luncheons, DINNERS and
teas, which constitute the occupation
of a certain element of society here
But amid this social maelstrom, one
meets more famous men and women,
statesmen, orators, soldiers and schol-
airs, more people worth knowing and
remembering, than in any other city
of America, or than III all its cities
combined.
And taken all in all, for its size, its
cosmopolitan population, it may be
said that Washington is good city
in point of morals. Still it has been
SO much and so long misrepresented,
that it viii be very difficult to remove
such a widely spread, erroneous i'm
preston.
Among its latest charities is the
ject of which is to protect and pro-
vide for young women who come here
expecting to get work and fail to do
so. A number of prominent ladies
and gentlemen have organized them
selves into an Association for the es-
tablishment of this ''Home,'' which
will be the means of preventing I'M
told suffering and degradation. Wo-
men come here seeking employment
from every quarter of the United
States. OF course many of them are
disappointed. Scarcely day pass
es that the police are not called on
to provide tor such unfortunates
while about the only thing they can
do tn furnich